One of the most obvious but painful ways to push water conservation is by raising prices. That can be through the monthly water bill or, upfront, through the "water connection charge" — essentially the variety of one-time fees that a residential or commercial development pays to hook up to the water system.

A new report from the group Western Resource Advocates argues cities in the West can use that charge to motivate more water-conscious development. 

“When there’s a structure in place that scales the connection charge to the water demand, developers might start to think, 'If this charge is pretty expensive, I wonder if there’s a way I can reduce it — do we need to have grass everywhere?'” said Amelia Nuding, who is one of the authors.

The report outlines a variety of the "tools" for encouraging water-efficient growth including service area, irrigation area, number of bathrooms, plant selection and house area. Nuding said several communities in Colorado have factored those into connection charges and saved water as a result.

According to Western Resource Advocates, the average connection charge for new single-family homes in Arizona is $5,200. Not surprisingly, homes in Phoenix with the lowest water consumption had entirely desert or mostly desert landscaping. 

Most Arizona communities surveyed in the report primarily take into account the water meter size and location to determine the connection charge. Not, for example, how much turf is around a home. For the most part, that's the criteria Phoenix uses when setting charges.

Douglas Frost with the city said, overall, the charges are modest in Phoenix and it’s not practical to look at each new development individually.

“We are seeing so much reduction in water use that we’re more than meeting our objectives," Frost said.

"The time might come when we have to accelerate this, but right now it doesn’t make sense to do so,” he said.

Phoenix does, however, differentiate between commercial and residential developments when setting connection charges. 

Frost said adjusting connection charges based on the characteristics of an individual home can be useful for cities in places like California, where residential water consumption is still quite high, but most new developments in the Phoenix metro area already use desert landscaping and water-efficient appliances. He also said the administrative headache and cost of examining each development would outweigh the benefits.

Geography has the biggest impact on what Phoenix households are charged for linking up to the water system. For example, a new single-family home in the growth areas of north Phoenix might pay more than $8,000, while a subdivision in central Phoenix would only pay about $1,300.